"You can see where this is going. One of the first things Trump has done has been to ensure agreement in its national security team on this point: that by letting our Middle Eastern allies arm al Qaeda-allied fighters, the Obama Administration created the mess that is in Syria.

And unanimity on that point — accompanied by what is sure to be a very ugly campaign of recriminations against the Obama Administration for cooking intelligence (even aside from the merit of this claim, Flynn has been bitter about his firing for what he sees as objecting to this cooked intelligence) — will provide the basis for Trump to work with Putin on ending the civil war in Syria to Bashar al-Assad’s advantage."Posted by: james | Nov 16, 2016 7:32:11 PM | 196"

Russia has long-term ambitions in the Middle East: Israeli officialBy Luke Baker | JERUSALEM Israel should be concerned about the deepening disconnect between Russia's aims in the Middle East and its own goals, according to a senior Israeli official who held high-level meetings in Moscow last week.Avi Dichter, chairman of Israel's foreign affairs and defense committee and the former head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency, said Russia's views on Iran, Syria's Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah were in sharp contrast to Israel's and a growing source of potential conflict.While he said Moscow appreciates the good ties it has with Israel and takes the diplomatic relationship seriously, it won't hesitate to impose actions that serve its interests on any countries in the Middle East, including Israel."The gap between us and them is large and disturbing," Dichter said in summing up discussions with senior members of Russia's upper and lower houses of parliament, the deputy defense minister and the deputy head of national security."Russia thinks and acts as a superpower and as such it often ignores Israeli interest when it doesn't coincide with the Russian interest," he said.